“I’m here,” she answered. “Is the sheriff on scene?”
“They’re here, but we need an ambulance right away! The woman’s been stabbed!”
“I’m dispatching that now,” she said as I heard computer keys tapping. “I have your location from the sheriff on scene. ETA is six minutes. Is the woman conscious?”
“Barely, and she’s losing a lot of blood,” I said as Ellie put a hand on my shoulder. It was only then that I realized I was shaking. The deputy was working with the woman, laying the seat back and talking gently to her. Traffic on both sides of the highway was slowing to a crawl as gawkers looked on. A minute or two later Duffy came back across the highway, empty-handed.
He puffed his way over to us, his look angry. “Lost the son of a bitch in the woods,” he said as he turned his head slightly and depressed a button on the walkie-talkie secured to his shoulder. “Dispatch, this is car three-eighty-one at the scene of that eleven-forty-seven, can you confirm the eleven-forty-one?”
“Confirmed, three-eighty-one.”
While Duffy called in his codes, I glanced back at the sedan and my heart went out to the woman inside. There was a moment of regret as I wondered whether, if we hadn’t chased the car, perhaps she wouldn’t have been hurt. Then my intuition weighed in and reassured me that the woman would recover and that she wouldn’t have had a chance otherwise. We’d done the right thing.
A few minutes later the ambulance arrived, and Duffy and the deputy stepped aside while the woman was carefully loaded into the emergency vehicle. As I watched her go, I knew that even though she’d been badly injured, my intuitive alarm had saved her life. Why my trusty intuition failed to save my own life mere days later is something I’m still trying to work out.
Chapter Seven
Ellie and I waited inside her car, shivering even though the heat was turned up, until Duff came over and tapped on the window. Ellie lowered the pane and he peered in. “We’ll need a statement from you two,” he said.
“No problem,” Ellie replied.
“My thinking is that you’ll probably want to go to the hospital to see how she’s doing though, huh?” Duffy asked. Ellie and I both nodded. “Okay, then, follow right behind me and I’ll take your statement there.”
We followed Duffy to the hospital, his siren blazing the way for us. We parked in the Emergency parking lot, then walked inside, and Ellie and I took a seat in the waiting room while Duffy headed over to the information desk to make sure the woman had arrived alive. Coming back a moment later, he said, “She’s being prepped for surgery. We’ll know more in a few hours, I think. In the meantime,” he said, flipping open his notebook, “I’d like the two of you to tell me exactly how this happened.”
Ellie looked at me and said, “You first, Abs.”
I gave a detailed account to Duffy about how we had been driving along and I’d happened to glance over at the car next to us when my intuition went haywire and I’d known something was wrong.
“How did you know?” Duffy asked me. “I mean, did you see the knife and that’s when you knew she was in trouble?”
I thought back and said, “No, I don’t remember seeing a knife. I just knew she was in trouble.”
Duffy nodded, “Okay, so go on.”
I continued with my story, describing the man in as great detail as I could, trying to give the police as much as possible to hunt down the villain.
When I’d finished, Duffy said, “Well, we’ll have the knife, at least, and hopefully the guy left his finger-prints on it. If he’s got any priors, we’ll know who he is. The woman we believe is Hadley Rankin from Mountain View; at least that’s who the car is registered to. There was no ID on her, so we can’t be sure, but we’ve got a deputy checking out her home, and he’ll try the neighbors if he gets no response.”
“Do you think the guy who stabbed her was a boyfriend or something?” Ellie asked.
“No,” I said immediately. “He was a stranger to her.”
“How do you know?” Duffy asked me.
I tapped my temple and said, “My sixth sense says they didn’t know each other. It’s also saying that he’s done this before.”
Duffy nodded. “The other deputy on scene, Garcia, called in a canine patrol. Maybe they’ll have better luck tracking down the maggot than I did.”
My left side felt thick and heavy. I’d known the moment I’d seen the assailant reach the woods that he wouldn’t be found, and I worried about someone so dangerous loose in the world.
Just then a familiar face came down the hallway. “Eddie!” Ellie said, jumping up to greet him.
“I just got back from the DMV and one of the ER interns told me you were here,” he said after he’d given her a big hug. “What’s going on?”
Ellie filled him in, and I watched his expression turn from concerned to frightened. “Jesus, Ellie!” he exclaimed when she’d finished. “You could have been killed!”
“We were fine,” I reassured him. “Really.”
Eddie turned on me, his face angry. “You force my fiancée on a high-speed chase after a guy with a knife and you expect me to be okay with that?”
“Eddie!” Ellie said, rubbing his arm to calm him down. “It’s all right. I promise. You know I’m a good driver.”
“Ellie,” he said, “we both know you are definitely not a good driver!”
“Well, I’m all right, after all,” she snapped back. “And that woman needed us. There’s no telling what that psycho would have done to her if we hadn’t been there.”
Eddie pouted for a long, tense moment as he looked from her to me to Duffy. Finally he said, “I gotta get back upstairs.”
“Sweetheart, don’t be like that,” Ellie coaxed, and pulled him to one side, out of earshot. They talked in muffled tones for a few minutes as Ellie did her best to reassure him that there was no harm done.
I looked at Duffy to gauge his reaction, and he said, “He’s got a point, you know.”
“Now you’re taking his side?” I asked.
“You two had no business chasing that car at those kinds of speeds. You could have been seriously injured or caused a major traffic accident.”
A big part of me wanted to argue with him, but I knew he was right, so I left it alone. I was just happy that we’d been able to save the woman and that neither Ellie nor I had gotten hurt. A minute later Ellie joined us again and said, “I think I’ve calmed him down. He’s just a little on the protective side.”
“Wouldn’t have any other type of guy marrying my sister,” Duffy said as he pulled her close and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
She laughed and gave him a playful punch in the stomach. “He’s also going to see if he can find out anything about her condition for us.”
“Great,” I said, and took my seat again as my stomach gave a rumble. I had forgotten how hungry I’d been when this whole thing started.
Duffy got up and announced, “Sounds like your furnace is running low there, Abs. I’ll head down to the cafeteria for some fuel. They have pretty good sandwiches here—any preferences?”
I brightened at the prospect and said, “Tuna or egg salad if they’ve got it.”
“I’ll take anything with turkey,” Ellie said, and grinned at her older brother. After Duffy had headed in the direction of the cafeteria, Ellie turned to me and asked, “How you holding up?”
“I’m okay. You?”
“Shaken but okay.”
We sat there side by side for a beat or two without speaking, when Ellie surprised me with, “I think you and Duffy should go out.”
I did a double take as I looked at her. “Excuse me?”
“Seriously. You know he’s a great guy, Abs. And he’s lonely.”
“Ellie,” I said as I squirmed in my seat, “I just broke up with my boyfriend!”
“So, the timing is rather perfect, wouldn’t you say?” she said, allowing her eyebrows to dance up and down.
“No. No, I wouldn’t say that the t
iming is perfect. I would say the timing is bad.”
“There is nothing like getting right back up on that horse again to make you forget about the last fall,” Ellie advised.
I rolled my eyes and replied, “Ellie, you know I love Duff, but I love him like a brother.”
“Yes, but he’s not your brother; he’s mine. Which is all the more reason you should consider going out with him. Think of it!” she said with relish. “If it worked out between you two, we could be sisters!”
“I think you need to eat, El; you’re starting to hallucinate.”
“I’m serious!” she insisted.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I replied. “Oh, look! Here comes Duffy with our food!”
“This conversation is not over, Abs.”
“Mmmmm. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!” I said, avoiding any more commentary on the subject.
Duffy came over to where we sat, carrying a tray of food and drinks, and Ellie jumped up and moved down one seat to allow him to sit between us. When he sat down she beamed me the full grille and I rolled my eyes.
Duffy handed out the sandwiches and chips and drinks and we all munched happily until Ellie jumped up midway into her sandwich, covered her mouth and bolted for the ladies’ room.
Duffy watched her go, then turned to me. “What happened?”
Setting down my sandwich on a small table next to me, I said, “Prewedding jitters. Let me check on her and I’ll be right back.”
I found Ellie at the sink, gripping the porcelain and looking pale. “You okay?” I asked, coming up behind her.
“This nausea has gotta stop,” she said as she eyed me in the mirror. “What if I get an attack during the ceremony?”
I chuckled as I patted her lightly on the back. “Aww, El, I’m sure it’ll be okay. Can I get you anything?”
“No. Thanks, Abs, it should pass in a minute,” she said as she turned on the faucet and splashed some cool water over her face.
Just then there was a knock on the restroom door. “That must be Duffy,” I said as I trotted over to it. When I opened it up I saw Duffy and Eddie. “Hey,” I said, a little startled to see Eddie again.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” Ellie said, coming over to stand behind me. “Just all this excitement and the wedding countdown has me a little nervous.”
“Will you let me take you home, El?” Eddie asked her gently.
“That’s a good idea,” I chimed in. I had only to look at Ellie’s energy to know that she was in desperate need of a nap.
“What about Hadley?” Ellie asked me. “Don’t you want me to wait with you until we know that she’s okay?”
“Duffy and I can handle it,” I said easily.
Ellie brightened suddenly as she thought of something. “Yeah. You’re right. That’ll give you two a chance to spend some time together. Come on, Eddie; let’s blow this Popsicle stand.”
As Ellie zipped around me to grab Eddie by the hand, then over to retrieve her coat so that they could head out, Duffy asked me, “What was that about?”
“You know your sister,” I said, shrugging my shoulders and leaving it at that.
After Ellie and Eddie had gone, Duffy and I sat back down in the waiting room. He had finished his sandwich, so I quickly polished off mine, then scooped up the trash and threw it away. When I got back to my seat Duffy had a thoughtful expression on his face. “What’s up?” I asked him.
“Nothing. Just glad you came in for the wedding.”
“Me too,” I said, grinning at him.
“Tell me something, Abby.”
“Shoot.”
“How does a guy dump a girl like you?”
His words sliced into me like a knife, and my smile faded quickly. “To be honest, Duff, I’m not really sure.”
“So what happened?”
I was looking down at my boots now, unable to make eye contact for fear that if I did, I’d start bawling. “I guess he got scared.”
“Is it true he dumped you on Valentine’s Day?”
“Yeah. He said he had a big case he needed to concentrate on and that we should slow things down a little.”
“So he didn’t really say, ‘I want to break up with you’?”
I thought about that for a minute. “No,” I said as I remembered looking into his energy and seeing no reflection of myself there. “He didn’t have to. It was implied.”
“How?”
“Well, it’s hard to explain. But he hasn’t called, and it’s been several days, so what does that tell you?”
“That he’s focusing on work,” Duffy said. “You know, I told Rachel the same thing right before she started cheating on me. I had just gotten this sheriff gig, and I needed to have all my energy go into it. Next thing I know she’s makin’ out with some pilot in my own backyard. She told me later that she thought I was pulling away from her, but the truth was I just needed to focus.”
“So what you’re telling me is that you guys all stick together,” I said, giving him a hard look.
“No more than you ladies,” Duffy said, beaming me a bright smile.
“Well, trust me on this,” I said firmly. “The way this is going, Dutch Rivers and I don’t have a future together.” Even as I said this I hoped I’d feel my left side go thick and heavy, confirming that I was making a false statement. Instead, there was nothing. No light, airy feeling on my right, nor thick and heavy on my left. That made me even more depressed, and I laid my head back against the chair and closed my eyes with a sigh.
“Tired?” Duffy asked.
“Yeah.”
“Want me to take you back to Viv’s?”
“No. I want to wait and see what happens to Hadley first.”
Just then there was a whoosh of air by my face as someone rushed past me. I opened my eyes in time to see what looked like a panic-stricken man hurry to the emergency information desk. The clerk behind the counter listened to what he had to say, typed something into her computer, then spoke in hushed tones to him, and he seemed to sag against the counter. She talked a little more, then pointed in our direction, and the man looked over at us. “Duffy,” I said as I elbowed him, only then realizing he’d also laid his head back and closed his eyes.
“What’s up?”
“That man coming toward us. I think that’s Hadley’s husband.”
Sure enough, the man stopped in front of us and identified himself as Jackson Rankin, Hadley’s husband. He looked ashen with worry, and I got up and coaxed him into the seat, sitting down in the chair next to him while Duffy began to gather some information.
“So you came home at what time?”
“About twenty minutes ago. I came home and found my house a wreck—”
“What do you mean by ‘wreck’?” Duffy interrupted.
Rankin paused and blinked a few times as he tried to think of a way to explain. “In my front hallway the rug was all bunched up, like something heavy had been dragged across it. And in my living room there was an overturned table and a lamp was broken. That’s when my neighbor tapped on my window and said the police were looking for me, and I needed to call the Denver sheriff’s department right away. I headed to the phone and called, and they said they thought my wife had been brought here.”
“May I borrow your house keys?” Duffy asked him.
“My house keys?” Rankin asked.
“Yes, I’d like to send a CSI team out to your house,” Duffy explained.
“Yeah, here you go,” Rankin said, giving over his keys with a shaking hand.
“Thanks,” Duffy said, putting them into a small envelope that he’d pulled from his pocket, which he marked with Rankin’s name and filed back into his shirt. “Mr. Rankin, do you know anyone who would want to hurt you or your wife?”
“No. No one. Everyone loves Hadley. She’s the nicest woman you’d ever want to meet,” Rankin said, his voice becoming shaky again.
“Okay,” Duffy said, pausing a moment
to allow Rankin to regain control. “Do you have a picture of your wife with you?” Duffy asked, probably wanting to identify that the woman in the hospital was indeed Hadley Rankin.
“Uh, no,” Rankin said, his face growing red. “I should have one, though, shouldn’t I?” he asked us, looking chagrined.
“Can you describe her?”
“She’s about five-four, one hundred twenty pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes.”
Duffy nodded and asked, “Does your wife wear any jewelry that might identify her, Mr. Rankin?”
“She wears a wedding ring and a watch I gave her last year.”
“Can you describe the watch?” Duffy asked, looking back through his notes.
“It’s a silver Timex with a blue face.”
Duffy nodded and snapped his notepad closed. “Yes, that all fits with the description of the woman we found at the scene.”
“So what’s happened to my wife?” Rankin asked, his voice breaking a little.
“I’m afraid she was assaulted and kidnapped at knifepoint. She and her assailant were observed by this young woman, who noticed something amiss and alerted the police. When we caught up to your wife’s car the suspect had fled, but not before stabbing your wife in the abdomen. She’s in surgery at this time, and we have no updates on her condition just yet.”
“Oh, God,” Rankin said, and his eyes filled with tears; then he buried his face in his hands and began to sob.
Duffy’s mouth was set in a grim line as he looked at Rankin. Even though he’d put on his cop face, I could tell it bothered him to have to tell the man that his wife had gone through a terrible ordeal. “Can I get you some water, Mr. Rankin?”
Rankin didn’t reply, but kept sobbing. I nodded at Duffy, who got up to get the water, while I rubbed the man’s back, leaning over to say, “She’ll be okay, Mr. Rankin. I have a good feeling she’s going to be all right. We just have to wait and see what her surgeon says, but I can’t imagine it will be much longer.”
As it turned out, we didn’t have long to wait. Before Duffy returned with the water, a doctor in scrubs came down the hallway, stopped at the info station and was pointed in our direction. “Mr. Rankin?” he asked when he stopped in front of us.